12 projects announced to fight climate change

Photo credit: MGN

French President Emmanuel Macron is calling on world leaders to fulfill their commitments as the only way to win the battle against global warming.

In his opening speech Tuesday at the climate summit in Paris, Macron said "we're having a good time here... but we're losing the battle." He mentioned the "very bad news" this year of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to reject the Paris accord fighting climate change.

He called on world leaders, business leaders and philanthropists attending the Paris summit to detail their commitments and fulfill them.

___

4:30 p.m.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has surprised a group of schoolchildren as a special guest during Paris' One Planet Summit.

The 250 French schoolchildren gasped and grabbed their camera as the "Terminator" star and former California governor gave his audience an unexpected pep talk on positive thinking. He compared his fight to be taken seriously in bodybuilding, movies and politics with the challenges of climate change.

Schwarzenegger said if students reject the cynics "we will complete our marathon and we will create a green energy future."

In a dig at the U.S. president, he said "the United States did not drop out of the Paris agreement. Donald Trump got Donald Trump out of the Paris agreement."

He led a panel including French actress Marion Cotillard and French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot.

___

4:15 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron's office has announced a dozen international projects that will inject hundreds of millions of dollars in efforts to curb climate change.

The plans were presented at a Paris climate summit that Macron convened to counter U.S. President Donald Trump's rejection of the 2015 Paris climate accord.

The projects include a program for eight U.S. states to develop electric vehicles, an investment fund for the hurricane-hit Caribbean and money from Bill Gates' foundation to help farmers adapt to climate change.

They also aim to speed up the end of the combustion engine as part of the Paris accord's goals to reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming.

___

1:30 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting 164 world leaders, government members, business leaders and prominent figures involved in fighting global warming at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris.

More than 50 heads of state and government were attending the lunch Tuesday organized by the French presidency for a climate summit aimed at finding billions of dollars of financing to help poor countries and industries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

They were welcomed in the Elysee courtyard by Macron, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, co-organizers the summit.

Macron will then accompany the leaders to the summit site on a river island by boat.

___

1:10 p.m.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says in a tongue-in-cheek statement that environmentalists owe President Donald Trump a debt of gratitude for acting as a "rallying cry" for action on climate change.

Speaking at Paris' One Planet Summit — two years after the Paris climate accord — a pithy Bloomberg said that Trump's decision to withdraw from the agreement that was decried by many world leaders has actually spurred thousands to action.

Bloomberg said the private sector coalition called "America's Pledge," that promises to honor goals set in 2015, "now represents half of the U.S. economy."

Bloomberg also said he hoped French President Emmanuel Macron was right when he suggested he might be able to change Trump's mind. He said being able to change one's mind is the mark of a "smart, confident, honest person."

___

1:05 p.m.

Slovenia's prime minister will not attend the climate summit in Paris because of bad weather.

The office of Miro Cerar said Tuesday he is staying in Slovenia to assess the damage caused by strong winds and torrential rains that hit the country this week.

Authorities say one woman is missing after falling into the swollen Meza river in northeastern Slovenia.

Thousands of households have been left without electricity, and many roads throughout the country blocked by fallen trees. Gale winds have swept roofs from a number of houses, and several schools canceled classes.

French President Emmanuel Macron says France's leadership on climate-related issues, following U.S. president Donald Trump's rejection of the Paris agreement, will help the country to attract new investors.

In an interview with French newspaper Le Monde ahead of a climate summit in Paris, Macron said American cities, regions, states and private actors are able to handle the decrease in climate financing by the federal state after Trump's decision.

Sean Penn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Gates and Elon Musk are among prominent U.S. figures joining over 50 world leaders at the summit.

Macron also promised to increase France's aid to help countries in the southern hemisphere to adapt to climate change, to reach 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) every year from 2020 on.

The French president also confirmed he will shut down France's oldest nuclear plant, at Fessenheim on the German border, by the end of his term in 2022.

___

12:35 p.m.

The European Union's top climate and energy official says the global shift to cleaner fuel is "unstoppable" and wants U.S. President Donald Trump's government to join in.

Miguel Arias Canete told The Associated Press that extreme weather in the U.S. such as hurricanes and heat waves is a sign that "nobody is spared" from climate change.

Responding to Trump's rejection of the Paris climate accord, Canete said "fighting climate change is a global challenge, we have to do it, all the world together."

He spoke Tuesday on the sidelines of a climate summit in Paris, where the EU is announcing several measures to encourage investment in cleaner energies.

Canete defended a decision by the European Investment Bank to invest in a pipeline bringing gas from Azerbaijan to southern Europe. He said it was necessary to reduce Europe's dependence on Russian gas, and insisted it wasn't contradicting the EU's climate goals.

___

11:35 a.m.

Experts on the way climate change affects global security have launched a six-point action plan aimed at addressing threats created by problems such as water and food shortages.

The Hague Declaration on Planetary Security was unveiled Tuesday at a conference in the Dutch city, on the same day that dozens of world leaders met in Paris to reinvigorate the fight against global warming.

Participants at the Paris meeting are expected to announce billions of dollars' worth of projects to help poor countries and industries reduce emissions.

The Hague declaration calls for the United Nations to create a special "climate security" envoy, urges better coordination on international migration issues, and calls for cities to take climate risks into account when planning urban expansion.

It also urges action on three specific problems: Food shortages in Africa's Lake Chad Basin, security in Mali and water management in Iraq.

___

11:25 a.m.

Norwegian pension fund Storebrand says it is launching a new $1.3-billion bond that will exclude investments in fossil fuel companies.

Storebrand, which has $80 billion in assets under management, says the new fund will take its total range of fossil-free equity funds to more than $3 billion.

Jan Erik Saugestad, the chief executive of Storebrand Asset Management, said Tuesday that the rise of such funds was a response to growing public concern over climate change.

Storebrand has already dumped its investments in companies deemed to be among the most polluting, in favor of renewable energy.

Saugestad said U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris accord wouldn't hinder his company from investing in the United States. He noted that despite the rollback of the Clean Power Plan some $30 billion has been invested in solar and wind projects, while coal power plants have been retired in recent years.

___

11:20 a.m.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to reassure international players at a climate summit that Americans do want to fight global warming.

Trump argues the accord will hurt U.S. business. A central aim of Tuesday's climate summit in Paris is to persuade financiers that investing in clean energy is a good long-term business move.

Kerry said 38 states have legislation pushing renewable energy and 90 major American cities support the Paris accord, adding, "We're going to stay on track."

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told the AP that Kerry's presence at Tuesday's summit "is a very clear sign that a part of the United States is also totally committed for the planet and for climate change."

___

10:55 a.m.

A group of 225 investment funds managing more than $26 trillion in assets says they are going to put pressure on companies to curb their greenhouse gas emissions and disclose climate-related financial information.

The group, which includes the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund, says it will focus on 100 of the world's largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters.

The Climate Action 100+ group made the announcement Tuesday at a climate summit in Paris marking the second anniversary of a United Nations accord to limit global warming.

Anne Simpson, investment director of sustainability at CalPERS, said getting major energy and transportation companies to align their future plans with the goals of the 2015 Paris accord could spur action across all sectors as companies seek to avoid being "left behind" by investors.

___

10:05 a.m.

Germany's Angela Merkel, who was once labeled the 'climate chancellor' for her efforts to curb global warming, has faced domestic criticism for failing to attend the summit in Paris.

Annalena Baerbock, a spokeswoman on climate issues for the opposition Green party, said Tuesday that French President Emmanuel Macron appears to be overtaking Merkel as Europe's leading lobbyist on climate issues.

"I think that's not a good sign," Baerbock told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. The Greens' lawmaker said Germany has lost international credibility on the issue by allowing its carbon emissions to stagnate over the past decade and refusing to join a recent international declaration on ending the use of coal, one of the most polluting fossil fuels.

Baerbock said Europe's biggest economy also could have sent a signal on climate financing — a major topic in Paris — by declaring that civil servants' pensions wouldn't be invested in fossil fuels companies anymore, as some countries have already done.

___

9:55 a.m.

Top world officials have opened a climate summit in Paris by saying investors and the entire global financial system need to shift faster toward energy and businesses that don't worsen climate change.

The prime minister of the island nation of Fiji said "we are all in the same canoe," rich countries and poor. Opening the summit, Frank Bainimarama said "financial pledges need to flow faster through more streamlined systems and make a difference on the ground."

Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono described ways Japan is investing in climate monitoring technology and hydrogen energy, but acknowledged "we have to do more and better."

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Tuesday's summit is aimed at making efforts to cut emissions more "credible."

The summit, co-hosted by the U.N., World Bank and French President Emmanuel Macron, is being held on the second anniversary of the Paris climate accord, ratified by 170 countries.

___

9:50 a.m.

Activists pretending to represent a massive wave of oil are holding a protest in Paris at the start of an international climate summit.

A few hundred protesters demonstrated Monday in front of the domed Pantheon monument on Paris' Left Bank as hundreds of world leaders, financiers and others gathered across town for the summit. The protesters unfurled a massive sheet and carried a huge banner reading "Not one more euro for energies of the past."

CEOs of banks and energy companies are joining more than 50 heads of state at the summit, which is aimed in part at speeding up investment in energy that doesn't damage the climate.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted leading world philanthropists Tuesday morning to encourage more climate-related investment.

___

8:15 a.m.

More than 50 world leaders are gathering in Paris for a summit that President Emmanuel Macron hopes will give new momentum to the fight against global warming, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's rejection of the Paris climate accord.

Some 3,100 security personnel are fanned out around Paris for Tuesday's event, including extra patrol boats along the Seine River. Macron will accompany the visiting leaders to the summit site on a river island by boat.

Sean Penn, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Elon Musk are among prominent figures joining the world leaders at the summit, which marks the second anniversary of the Paris accord.

Participants are expected to announce billions of dollars' worth of projects to help poor countries and industries reduce emissions.

Macron, who's also using the event to raise his international profile, did not invite Trump.

Online Public Information File

Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or fccinfo@fcc.gov.